Slate - "Americans are disturbingly unbothered by the idea of striking first with nuclear weapons."

Americans are disturbingly unbothered by the idea of striking first with nuclear weapons.

By Fred Kaplan

As President Trump rails against North Korea, threatening to rain down “fire and fury like the world has never seen” if it so much as tests another long-range missile, the world can’t help but wonder: Would he really do this? Would he order a nuclear strike, the ultimate fire and fury, against a country that hadn’t attacked us first?

Many are doubtful. His top security advisers would oppose such a move. So would the American people who, though they have no formal say in the matter, would impose constraints on a president’s actions—or so goes the conventional wisdom. Some scholars have written of a “nuclear taboo” ingrained in our sensibilities since the bombing of Hiroshima. Others detect a growing revulsion against the killing of noncombatants even with conventional weapons.

However, a new study suggests that these comforting notions are mistaken.

In the latest issue of the journal International Security, Scott Sagan and Benjamin Valentino, respectively professors at Stanford University and Dartmouth College, conclude that the American public is “unlikely to serve as a serious constraint on any president who might consider using nuclear weapons in the crucible of war.” In fact, under pressures similar to those facing President Harry Truman at the end of World War II, a clear majority of the public would support the first use of nuclear weapons now, just as it did back then.

Some opinion polls appear at first glance to show otherwise. A majority of Americans now say that Truman was wrong to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But Sagan and Valentino regard those polls as “a misleading guide” to understanding Americans’ “real views” on the use of nuclear weapons and the killing of civilians.

11. my wife and I actually say that if the shit hits the fan, let the first one fall on our house.

9. It doesn't matter that US citizens are unconcerned re. a nuclear first strike

What is important is that China and Russia have bunches of ICBMs and bunches of thermonuclear bombs to put on top of them. If we fire nukes at NK then China will fire nukes at us, Russia too in all likelihood.

Don't kid yourself thats how this game is played. Them's the rules, and everybody knows them.

Now we might get away with a conventional attack on NK without reprisal, Maybe. Depends on what precipitated our attack. If Nk launches a missile anywhere towards US territory, I expect we will strike back very hard with a conventional attack.